Sadness is a sad reality of being human. When we are sad, our spirits are down, our very physical energy seems depleted, and morale for living is almost all but gone. Sadness can lead to even lower degrees or intensities of sadness, until perhaps we reach what psychologists refer to as 'clinical depression'. Absolutely no human being in all the universe, all through time, in every civilization, is exempted from sadness.
Even the maker of the universe, God in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ, wept with sadness at the tomb of his friend, Lazarus, and that emotion was certainly a much stronger level of sadness we would term, grief.
So how does the message of the gospel bring us out of sadness? How is the gospel message even an antidote to sadness? Perhaps even a possible immunization against chronic and debilitating sadness?
The gospel message hits right home to the heart of the human being. Our deepest of deepest thoughts and consciousness tells us that we are cosmically lonely. That we were not put here into an existence to be lonely. That we were made for company. Many of us begin life in the company of family. And amazingly, family can sometimes, and for some of us, many times, be such an unbelievable context for loneliness. The very ones who are supposed to provide companionship with its corollaries of love or 'chumship' (HS Sullivan), end up tearing apart the very fabric of our relational capabilities and capacities.
So how does the gospel message deal with this sense of cosmic loneliness?
Well, the gospel message begins with a story in the garden. The Creator of the Universe (so, for those of you who are atheists, here's where you get off), 'brooded' over and thus prepared and planned for His creation with its apex being relationship with the chief of creation - man - and Creator.
The external beauty and richness of the garden was simply to be a reflection of the inner beauty of a thoroughly satisfied heart in fellowship with the Lily of the Valley, and the Bright and Morning Star. With the Fairest of Ten Thousand, and the Sweetness of Honey in the Rock.
All relationships are mutually satisfying, and love is reflected in trust. Alas, the one simple prohibition (the tree in the middle of the garden compared to all the other trees), was sadly trespassed. Love wasn't enough for the first man and woman. They just did not want to trust Him who had given them everything. They chose to listen to a created creature who voiced doubt about the Creator's love.
Loneliness become the instant companion of man upon the first act of disobedience. We have been trying to find our way back to the garden of interpersonal pleasure and companionship using our own machinations ever since.
Tragically, the offence against an Infinite Omnipowerful and Everlasting Being then makes that offence infinite and everlasting. The gap and breach between Creator and creature is infinite. And finite means just cannot bridge an infinite chasm. Created in the image of an infinite Creator, the created being is now left with an indescribable sense of infinite sadness which can only be healed with Infinite Agency.
And in the gospel message, God in Christ Jesus, took the initiative. He chose in His pleasure, to provide the solution by coming down Himself through the incarnation of Christ, to take upon Himself, the infinite transgression. Only the 100% God-man could every satisfy Infinite Justice's justice. And God went one step farther. Not only was He determined to blot out every sin and transgression of His beloved creation, He was determined that He would then transfer, or input the passive and active obedience of His Son, together with all its merits, to these transgressing race.
The gospel is good news precisely because SomeOne has taken our place at the execution. SomeOne took our punishment for our sins. SomeOne lived the life we were supposed to live, so that we could live the life He has ordained us to live, a life of holiness, without blame, without wrath, in His favor, enjoying His blessings, and His joy.
The message of the good news is that I no longer have to be sad because the Author of life and joy lives in me! The objective news acted upon through the power of the Holy Spirit, makes the news a subjective experience and reality in my life. As I listen to the good news of Christ's substitutionary work at Calvary, and His resurrection, as I give my heart to this glorious news daily, the Holy Spirit acts upon God's WORD, to enflesh this awesome truth within me, by faith.
The message of the good news is that I am even too sinful, too dead in my trespasses and sins, even to 'exercise faith', unless, God, by His Spirit, acting upon the WORD of Christ, touches, or quickens my heart with both His WORD and Spirit, and brings about repentance from sin and dead works, and faith in the Living God.
The glorious gospel message is my mediation 'night and day'. It is no coincidence that God's message to Joshua just before the Israelites entered the promised land, was that he is to 'meditate upon God's WORD day and night'. This was the only way for success and prosperity in God's promised land. It called for 100% dependence upon God for faith and strength.
When I meditate upon this wonderful truth of the gospel, that 'God made Him (Christ), who knew no sin, to be sin for us (me), so that we (I) may be made the righteousness of God (Christ's righteousness imputed to me, or reckoned to me)', the very life and power of God's Spirit raises me up from my circumstances, and by this faith, lifts me up and out of every sadness, to live life to the glory of God.
Christ Himself is to be my meditation. Christ Himself is to be my abiding daily into. This is no mere doctrine or belief in a proposition. This is the WORD made flesh, dwelling not only among us, but 'within us'!
The glorious message of Christ's gospel is that God, by His sheer grace, because of His love wherewith He loved us, gave us Jesus to turn us away from our sins, and to bless us into His presence, for times of refreshing, again and again.
Does this mean that there will be no more sadness in our human experience? Of course not! In fact, the sadness becomes more acute as Christ gives us a taste of His true humanity. We taste true sadness devoid of selfishness. And in that moment, by the grace of Christ and by the power of His Spirit, we taste His companionship, simultaneously, and thereby experience what the prophet of old said that He will be with us 'in trouble'.
God has promised us in Christ, by His Spirit, His presence with us, always, even to the end of the age, or world. This truth becomes our antidote to debilitating and crushing sadness, and even amidst sadness, we are not cast down, or destroyed. We will always bear in our experience, the death of Christ, and all the effects of fallen humanity, simultaneously, as we enjoy His presence, with 'pleasures evermore'.
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